Wow! Anti-gay, Racist Oregon Bakery takes the cake

Owner of “Sweet Cakes by Melissa” Bakery, Aaron Klein, admits that he refused to complete the order for a wedding cake when he found out the nuptials included two brides. He denies that quoted scripture at the couple and referred to the rebuffed customers as “abominations”. His credibility may be shot by his own vitriolic comments on his business Facebook page in which he tossed off a rant against his detractors that included racial slurs and referred to women as hoes and hippos. The screenshot is making the rounds. They’ve taken down their Facebook page as of this posting. While Melissa and Aaron may face a fine for their illegal business practice, their hateful behavior actually sparked a cultish following among fellow bigots.

Aaron Klein rested his arms atop the empty display case in his Gresham bakery, exhausted after his busiest and most profitable day in nearly five years.

by: OUTLOOK PHOTO: KRISTOPHER ANDERSON – KRISTOPHER ANDERSON Aaron and Melissa Klein, who own Sweet Cakes by Melissa, a Gresham bakery, were the subjects of protest and support after refusing to serve a same-sex couple.

With an hour left until close on Saturday, Feb. 2, Aaron, who already sold out of all his baked goods, had to turn customers away.

And for most of the day, a line of customers stretched out the door, even while protestors stood on a nearby street corner.

People flocked from throughout Oregon, and even Washington, to Sweet Cakes by Melissa, at 44 N.E. Division St., not for the tasty treats but to show support for the business that refused on Jan. 17 to sell a cake to a homosexual couple after learning the women were planning a same-sex wedding.

Aaron and Melissa, who are married and co-own the bakery, told the couple they didn’t want to support the wedding because of their Christian belief that marriage is between a man and a woman.

The state’s Department of Justice is investigating Aaron’s actions to determine if he violated Oregon’s anti-discrimination law, which prohibits places of public accommodation to refuse service based on numerous classifications, including sexual orientation.

But Aaron’s refusal to sell the couple the cake did little to deter customers over the weekend.

“It’s probably the biggest day we’ve ever had,” he said. “It’s been big.”

“We couldn’t keep up,” Melissa added.

But since learning about the investigation on Monday, Jan. 28, not all of the response has been positive.

The couple said they’ve received emails, phone calls and Facebook messages from people around the country upset with the business’s allegedly discriminatory practice.

And outside the bakery’s parking lot on Saturday, a same-sex couple from Portland stood along Division Street, protesting the bakery’s actions.

Kim Crane and Rachel Oleson held signs and gave away homemade cupcakes to people who believe in equality.

“We thought that intolerance shouldn’t be the only story people hear about,” Crane said. “So we came out here to rally support for people who support equality. We’re just trying to raise awareness and give away some cupcakes.”

The couple, who plan to get married next year, said hearing about the bakery makes them feel like outcasts in their community.

“It’s personal for us and it’s personal for a lot of people,” Crane said. “And when you hear about something like that, it makes you feel like your neighborhood isn’t your neighborhood or your city isn’t your city. There are places where you’re not welcome.

So we’re trying to welcome people with our gay cupcakes.”

But Aaron said he’s not refusing all his services to homosexuals, only the sale of wedding cakes. And his supporters who showed up in droves on Saturday, said the woman who filed the complaint should simply buy the cake elsewhere.

“Nobody hates (homosexual individuals),” said Vlad Shalashov, who shopped with his wife, Miya, at the bakery for the first time to show support last weekend. “If they don’t like the owner who refused service to them, go somewhere else.”

Vlad and Miya, a Christian couple from Happy Valley, added that the Oregon Equality Act infringes upon their beliefs and persecutes Christians.

Miya, an immigrant from the Ukraine, said she came to the United States for religious freedom, but instead, “It looks like the same thing is starting here that we had over there.”

“(Christians) have rights, as well,” Miya added. “If we believe this is a sin and we don’t want to be supporting those actions, then we have the right to refuse.

“Gays and homosexuals is a lifestyle that they’ve chosen. This is what I believe. (The bakery) did not refuse service to them, but they did refuse to participate in having them get married.”

Outside the bakery, holding a colorful sign that read, “Don’t hate, let them eat cake,” Crane said people should have a right to their beliefs, but that a business shouldn’t be able to practice segregation.

“When it comes to discriminating against people and refusing to offer a person the same service that you would offer any other person — I don’t know the legality of it, but I know it’s intolerant,” Crane said.

As they closed their shop after serving people from Tacoma, Wash., to Halfway, Ore., Aaron and Melissa said they’ve received letters calling them “bigots” and “intolerant.” But the couple said they’re not discriminatory.

“We’re not hateful people,” Melissa said. “We’re just standing up for what we believe in.”

Aaron and Melissa, who could face fines if it’s found they violated the Oregon Equality Act, called the law “petty” and “intolerant.”

But they added that they won’t succumb to the threats of fines and intend to fight the investigation.

“I’m willing to stand up for God, and I’m going to stand up for my beliefs,” Melissa said. “If I lose this business, if I lose that for God, then I lose it for God. And I’ll be proud to lose it for him. That’s just me. That’s what I believe.”

In the video, Goldman says, “there’s injustice involving a cake,” and he wanted to do something about it, “just to right the wrong.”

The state attorney general’s office is investigating a complaint against a Gresham bakery after a Portland woman said the business refused to make a cake for her wedding to another woman.

The dispute involves Portland’s Laurel Bowman, her fiancee, and her fiancee’s mother, who, as the Oregonian earlier reported, had gone to Sweet Cakes by Melissa, a Gresham bakery, for a test of a wedding cake. As the Oregonian’s Everton Bailey Jr., reported, “the state attorney general’s office is investigating a complaint against” the bakery “after a Portland woman said the business refused to make a cake for her wedding to another woman.”

As Bailey wrote, “when the owner (of the shop) discovered the cake was for a same-sex marriage, he called the couple ‘abominations unto the lord,'” according to (the) consumer complaint.”

Bailey also reported:

Aaron Klein, who has owned the Gresham bakery with his wife, Melissa, for about five years, said Friday the business sells pastries and cakes to customers of all sexual orientations. But same-sex marriage goes against their Christian faith, he said, and they’ve turned down requests in the past to bake cakes for those occasions.

“I believe marriage is a religious institution between a man and woman as stated in the Bible,” Klein said. “When someone tells me that their definition is something different, I strongly disagree. I don’t think I should be penalized for that.”

Klein denies calling the couple “abominations” or saying that their money wasn’t equal. He said he told them that his business doesn’t sell cakes for same-sex marriages and that he was sorry for wasting their time.

‘Sweet Cakes by Melissa’ posts racist rant on Facebook (Photos)

Atheism news: It looks like the owners of ‘Sweet Cakes by Melissa’ are making an ideal display of Christian values as well as thebigotry fueled by ignorance. The establishment, along with its owner Aaron Klein, are already under media scrutiny for breaking Oregon state law by discriminating against a same sex couple. In this breaking news report, there is evidence that Klein’s bigotry goes far beyond his citation of the bible. In fact, the latest thing believed quoted by the cake shop owner is so grotesque that it’s likely that only the lowest common denominator would even want to give him business. This is an original report with original screenshots not yet in the media.

As of Feb. 4, 2013 an image of ‘Sweet Cakes by Melissa’ making racist comments has circulated heftily across social networking sites. The screenshot shows the page prior to a change of profile photo, and it also shows some comments from angered ‘fans’ of the page who had once ‘liked’ it. Since then not only have the offending posts been removed, but the bakery’s Facebook account has been deactivated after day of outrage by members of Facebook (and the public) demanding answers as to why Klein and his wife were posting and deleting, and why they were deleting members’ posts as well.

As you can see by the screenshot, which is being shared aggressively by a Twitter user named Dan Bell, ‘Sweet Cakes by Melissa’ appears to be saying the following:

“F_ _ k the N_ _ gers, Spics, whores, sodimites, fat b_ _ches, ugly c_ _ ts, hypocritical hoes and overweight hippos on our feed. We try so hard to bake cakes and all you ungrateful bullies hate on me and my beautiful family after these articles were written, shame on you! If you don’t like our busineess then don’t stop by! More cake for our fellow Christians!”

Up until the afternoon of Monday, Feb. 4, 2013, their Facebook page was up and the owners of the business were rabidly defending their beliefs while deleting opponents’ comments. The page is now gone, deleted after being active for who-knows-how-long. In this Youtube video, Aaron Klein is heard saying that his choice to discriminate against a same sex couple doesn’t apply to the Oregon state law prohibiting precisely what he did. He said that the U.S. Constitution grants him the right to discriminate based on religion because he, as a Christian, doesn’t agree with homosexual marriage.

Well, his Constitutional rights may protect him and give him the right to post the N-word on his business’s main page before deleting it, but it certainly does not give him the legal right to discriminate against others. The Bureau of Labor and Industries, according to the above-cited Youtube video, says that he is absolutely violating Oregon’s state law. In fact, a spokesperson with the BOLI said that the same sex couple that was treated this way is encouraged to go through with a complaint against Klein’s business.

I did reach out to ‘Sweet Cakes by Melissa’ in an attempt to get their side of the story. I wanted to ask about the screenshot that shows these horrible, horrible things being said. However, they removed their Facebook page and would not answer any of the contact numbers available to talk with them. While this could be for the obvious public backlash their actions received, but it could also be indicative of a refusal to face responsibility and questioning for one’s actions. Here’s to hoping they can either confirm or deny that this screenshot is for real.

It seems that the story of what happened to the unnamed couple gained the attention of Food TV star chef Duff Goldman. He’s going to make the couple’s wedding cake free of charge to make up for what ‘Sweet Cakes by Melissa’ did to them. The television star said the following:

“For a cake decorator to really feel like he really needed to take a stand…just makes absolutely no sense. It’s petty. It’s small… This man was wrapped up in his hatred in the cloak of religion.”